Students Speak Out at Gun Control Marches

Marketa Grant from East Hampton High School joined the Sag Harbor March for Our Lives on Saturday.
Lisa Tamburini

Students organized buses to Washington, D.C., and a protest in Sag Harbor and many traveled to New York City on Saturday as the March for Our Lives in the nation's capital was mirrored by hundreds of similar events across the country calling for more effective gun control measures.

Student survivors of the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla., last month took center stage at the March for Our Lives in Washington, where a busload of students from East Hampton joined teens from around the country.

In Sag Harbor, several hundred people from across the East End turned out for a sister March for Our Lives. On the grass by the windmill at Long Wharf, 17 white cardboard coffins bore the names of the 17 students and teachers killed in the Feb. 14 school shooting in Florida.

Parents pushed babies in strollers and carried toddlers on their shoulders, and grandparents walked hand in hand with grandchildren.

Students from elementary through high school age carried signs they had made themselves: "I should be writing college essays, not my will"; "When I said I'd rather die than go to geometry -- that was hyperbole. A**holes"; "Children or guns. Why is this even a question?"

Many were far too young to vote, but among those on the bus to Washington were a number of students who will be old enough to vote in the next election, Sutton Lynch, an East Hampton High School senior who helped to organize the bus, said in an email.

The Sag Harbor rally was several hundred strong.Lisa Tamburini

In Sag Harbor, the Rev. Karen Ann Campbell of Christ Episcopal Church stood in the midst of 17 cardboard coffins bearing the names of the students and teachers killed last month in the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. The coffins were later moved to the church lawn.Durell Godfrey

Among the East Hampton students who traveled to the March for Our Lives in Washington were several who will be old enough to vote in the next election.Sutton Lynch

The shooting in Florida moved many young people to action and activism.Durell Godfrey Photos

Parents marched with young children and babies.Durell Godfrey

Sinead Murray, a student, helped organize the Sag Harbor march and also spoke to the crowd.Lisa Tamburini